updated 12:10 pm EDT, Thu March 22, 2007

Rival to YouTube?

With television profits being increasingly threatned by the rise of sites like YouTube, NBC Universal and News Corp. (owners of Fox, IGN and MySpace) have announced a new video site to debut this summer. Though it is nameless for the time being, the site already has substantial content planned: users will be able to watch clips and full episodes of shows such as "Heroes," "House" and "30 Rock," and movies already on tap include "Borat," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Devil Wears Prada."

What may make the site a genuine threat however is revenue and distribution -- while many other video sites are supported by advertising, NBC and News Corp. have already managed to secure parties such as Intel, General Motors and Cadbury Schweppes to support the videos. The site is likewise guaranteed to be ubiquitous, since distribution partners include AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo. These corporations will in turn use custom embedded players to retain the look of subsites.